Choc milk leaves nasty taste in mouth of parent of primary one youngster in South Lanarkshire

Nov 17 2011 Hamilton Advertiser

COUNCIL chiefs were this week criticised for offering flavoured milk packed with sugar to children in 246 Lanarkshire primaries.

A parent was stunned when he discovered that chocolate milk – with a sugar content of 6.4g per 100ml – was on the menu at all South Lanarkshire 124 primary schools.

That is the equivalent of three tea spoonfuls of sugar per 200ml carton of the drink offered as part of the school meals package.

The sugar content is just over 60 per cent of what is found in Coca-Cola (10.6g per 100ml) and Irn Bru (10.5g per 100ml).

North Lanarkshire Council say flavoured milk is also on the menu at their 122 primary schools.

In South Lanarkshire, parents fork out £1.20 a day for their children to eat school meals.

Kids are offered the option of one of two hot meals or a packed lunch with one of two snacks. A selection of vegetables and a dessert are included on the menu, as well as a choice of milk or fruit juice.

The council’s website states: “To encourage school children to adopt healthier eating habits, we've been improving our school meals service.”

However, a dad hit out after his son, a primary one pupil at a South Lanarkshire school, returned home with chocolate milk spilt on his shirt.

The man said school menus gave no indication that the milk on offer would be flavoured.

He believes it is contrary to claims that schools are “health-promoting”.

“With the rise of child obesity, they shouldn’t be serving this,” added the man who asked not to be named.

“When my son started at school we were told it was a Health Promoting School and I was totally in favour of that.

“We try to keep his diet as good as possible. When you see the programmes that Jamie Oliver did in America, one of the problems was flavoured milk. I was pretty shocked that the council here are saying they are actively doing everything they can for kids health... yet they are offering them this.

“The schools are powerless in this, it’s obviously come from the council.”

The father was also unhappy that the menu sent out at the start of the year just said “milk” rather than emphasising it was chocolate-flavoured.

He added: “I’m angry because, as parents, we weren’t given the option of educating our son and telling him it’s something he wasn’t allowed.

“It’s just giving in to people who let their kids drink anything. It should be normal milk and diluting juice that are on offer.”

Last year, the council were forced by budget constraints to scrap the scheme through which primary three to primary seven children were offered free fruit and bottled water.

A spokesperson for the South Lanarkshire Council said: “All milk that we offer in schools is manufactured to comply with the nutritional requirements for food and drink in Scottish schools regulations, 2008.

“We still provide free fruit to all primary one and two pupils.

“We do offer a choice of plain or flavoured milk and this information will be included in future menus beginning summer 2012.”

A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said they food and drink supplied to school children met national guidelines on nutrition.

Drinking the flavoured milk was acceptable – provided it was consumed as part of a healthy, balanced diet.